Demarsh faces life imprisonment if convicted as charged of first-degree murder.

Bruce Varnum testified that his sister disappeared in October 2010, and he began conducting his own search for her.

"I heard rumors something happened to her," he said.

She hadn't picked up a paycheck at the Burger King restaurant where she worked. The mobile home on New Tampa Highway where she had been staying with Demarsh was filthy, and there were just a few of his sister's possessions there.

Despite reporting her missing to police, another seven days passed before detectives would be given the case to investigate. By the time her body was found, skeletal remains were all that was left.

The 44-year-old woman's slaying has been a controversial topic for the Lakeland Police Department, which launched internal investigations into how police handled her case.

Virginia Varnum asked a neighbor to call for help on the morning of Oct. 12, 2010, when her boyfriend, Demarsh, was acting erratic.

Police briefly handcuffed Demarsh but let him go after he calmed down. Officers testified that Virginia Varnum did not express that she was in fear.

A neighbor testified she told police she overheard Demarsh threaten to kill Varnum, but they disregarded the threat. Officers testified they were not told about such a threat.

Five days later, police were asked to conduct a welfare check on Varnum. She wasn't at home, and Demarsh told officers that she moved away.

Officers did not write reports detailing either the disturbance call on Oct. 12 or the welfare check on Oct. 17.

Bruce Varnum went to police on Oct. 21, 2010, to report her missing.

Officer Patrick Blanchette didn't label the information about her disappearance as a "missing person report," and seven more days elapsed without anything being done.

Sgt. Jeff Birdwell, who supervises the violent crime division, testified the report was labeled as an "incident report." That classification didn't require further investigation by detectives.

Birdwell was asked whether it was appropriate to label Virginia Varnum's disappearance as an incident report.

"Absolutely not, especially with these circumstances, as we have come to learn," Birdwell said.

Detectives were investigating the case by the evening of Oct. 28, 2010.

An employee of the mobile home park where Virginia Varnum had been staying described a bad-smelling odor emanating from some nearby woods. The waning daylight hampered the police search.

The next day, Bruce Varnum conducted a search of his own and found his sister. It didn't take long.